ARLINGTON, Texas — Teoscar Hernandez is on track for his most productive season since 2021, when he first became an All-Star with the Toronto Blue Jays, underlining just how well the $23.5-million, one-year deal he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers is working out.
What’s made it such a good match?
“One of the biggest reasons is the confidence that the team, the manager and the front office and everybody gives me to do the things that I know how to do,” Hernandez said Monday, hours before outlasting Bobby Witt Jr. 14-13 in a dramatic final to win the Home Run Derby. “They believe in everything I’ve got and they believe that I can help the team win. And I think that does make the difference between this year and the last couple of years.”
The last couple years, of course, includes an .807 OPS in 2022 with the Blue Jays, with two homers in that galling Game 2 wild-card loss to Seattle, followed by a solid-but-less-strong .741 OPS in 2023 with the Mariners after an off-season trade to the Pacific Northwest.
With the Dodgers, he’s part of a uniquely deep and talented lineup that includes perennial MVP candidates Shohei Ohtani, the injured Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, plus fellow All-Star Will Smith.
But that’s not the only difference from the previous two years.
“When you get all the support that you need, it doesn’t matter if you make a mistake,” he said. “They’re always supporting you and telling you that they need you, that they count on me and all those little things.”
Hernandez has rewarded that support by hitting .261/.327/.475 with 19 homers and 62 RBIs in 95 games, and then showed out in the derby to become the first Dodger to win the event.
He hit 19 homers to finish fourth among the eight participants in the first round to advance to the semifinals, where he tied 14-14 with Alec Bohm but moved on when he beat the Philadelphia Phillies third baseman 2-1 in a three-out swing-off.
Witt, meanwhile, beat Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez 17-12 in the other semi and then made a late push to chase down the 14 Hernandez laid down to open the final.
Up only by two as the Kansas City Royals shortstop headed into the three-out bonus round, Hernandez said, “Oh, man, I was nervous,” knowing how tight things were.
But Witt managed just one more homer, with his final swing sending a ball off the centre-field wall to secure the crown for Hernandez.
“The last shot that he got, he was a little, like, too close to the tie,” he said. “But thank God it didn’t go out. Super happy.”
Also super happy was last year’s champion, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who told Hernandez at the hotel Sunday that “I have a surprise for you, compadre,” and then showed up wearing a Blue Jays jersey with his friend’s No. 37 on the back.
Guerrero, who also lost a derby final as a rookie in 2019, jumped in a couple of times during timeouts with strategic advice and wrapped him in a bear hug once he’d won.
“That was one of the biggest surprises tonight, what he did (with the jersey),” said Hernandez. “When he came to home plate, he was trying to calm me down. And it worked. What he said helped me going into the last round in the final.”
When someone suggested that he probably would have been considered an underdog among the field heading into the derby, Hernandez didn’t flinch, replying that, “It doesn’t matter who I’m going against — I’m going to bet on myself.”
Rightly so, and in taking that big-salary, one-year deal with the Dodgers, he’s delivering for a team willing to make a bet on him, too.
